AMNESTY: Israel carried out indiscriminate attacks during the Gaza war
by Saed Bannoura
AMNESTY International published on Wednesday a 117-page report on the Israeli war against the Gaza Strip, which started December 27, 2008, and stated that Israel breached the laws of war and carried out indiscriminate attacks against the Palestinian people.
The reported stated that Israel launched its war on Gaza without a warning and that its attacks led to the death of 1400 Palestinians, mainly civilians, including 300 children.
AMNESTY also said that most of the destruction in Gaza is unjustifiable as it targeted civilian areas, besides failing to distinguish between civilian and military targets.
It said that this is a direct violation of the International Law.
‘Israel using high-precision weapons killing hundreds of civilians, including women and children’, the report stated, ‘Many civilians, including women and children, were shot at short range while posing no threat to the live of Israeli troops’.
AMNESTY further said that the army killed children playing on rooftops, people sleeping in their homes, and fired white phosphorus shells over and into densely populated civilian neighborhoods resulting in hundreds of casualties, and destroying civilian property.
It said that artillery, and white phosphorus, should not be used in shelling civilian areas, and that such usage is unlawful.
The report also showed that Israeli soldiers used Palestinians as human shields while the soldiers were searching buildings.
AMNESTY slammed Israel for not establishing an independent and impartial investigation into the conducts of its soldiers during the war, and for refusing to cooperate with the international fact-finding mission.
It said that Hamas movement in Gaza cooperates with human rights organizations and missions that investigate the war, while Israel refuses to cooperate.
AMNESTY also said that the Palestinian fighters in Gaza of violating the International law by firing shells into civilian areas in southern Israel killing three civilians. Ten Israeli soldiers were killed during the war on Gaza.
Many of the injured Palestinians died of their wounds raising the number of residents who were killed by the Israeli forces as a result of this offensive to more than 1600.
